Coldwell Banker Begins Search

Real estate company Coldwell Banker is looking for a shop to handle creative and media duties on its estimated $10-15 million residential account.

Consultant Monty Kiernan of the Kiernan Group in Weston, Conn., who is managing the search, confirmed the review. He said questionnaires were recently sent out to an undisclosed number of New York shops. Kiernan would not comment on which agencies were sent RFPs.

The assignment includes national TV spots, direct response TV, radio and Web work. Sources said the RFPs are due back the first week of May, and the Parsippany, N.J.-based client will narrow a list of contenders during the week of May 7. No decision date has been set yet.

Officials at Coldwell Banker could not be reached by press time.

Incumbent The Sawtooth Group in Woodbridge, N.J., has handled the client's regional and national creative for the past seven years. Grey's Media Com in New York handles media.

Sawtooth president Tom Magnus would not comment on whether his shop is defending. MediaCom executives did not re turn calls by press time.

Sawtooth this past February launched a regional TV campaign for the client on New York networks. The latest spot, which aired on CBS last month, featured a balding man sitting among a group of boxes in his living room. "I'm not an electrician," he says. "I'm not a decorator. I'm a homeowner."

Coldwell Banker is part of the Cendent Group, a New York-based hotel franchisor that also operates real estate companies, such as Century 21 and ERA. Coldwell Banker spent about $45 million overall on media in 2000, according to CMR.